Showing posts with label Dollar Tree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dollar Tree. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

DIY Pencil Gumball Machine Teacher's Gift

DIY Pencil Gumball Machine Teacher's Gift, turn your favorite pencil into a Gumball work of art. Resembling a No.2 pencil, this gumball machine will bring a smile to your child's teacher for sure!
Hola Amigos! A quick and budget friendly craft for kids to give their favorite teacher for this new school year about to start soon. It's a DIY "Pencil No.2"  Gumball Machine made with materials available at your nearest dollar store.

This would be the 3rd time I've changed my Gumball machine, just to give you an idea of how versatile this project is! Here it is all dressed up for St. Patrick's and here ready to welcome Easter!
What I used:  1 dollar store fish bowl, 1 terracotta pot with 2 saucers one the one smaller than the other, Assorted paints, yellow, grey, green and pink,to resemble a pencil, gumballs or any other candy you will see appropriate, adhesive letters and numbers to spell No.2., hot glue gun or glass cement.
How I did it: Paint your terracotta pot in the same order of colors of a No.2 pencil. Once the paint is dry, add your letters (or you could paint them too!) to the bottom of the yellow pot. If you recalled, I suggested 2 saucers, 1 smaller than the other, you see, the smaller saucer will go on the inside of the bigger one and once we used this one as a "lid" for our gumball machine it will stay in place! The way you attached the fish bowl onto the bottom of the terracotta pot is by gluing it's bottom with hot glue or glass cement. Fill your gumball with candy, add any other embellishment to the lid and you are ready!
DIY Pencil Gumball Machine Teacher's Gift, this cute "Gumball Machine" will bring a smile to your child's teacher face. Fill it up with candy, cookies, paper clips, your choice, it would look great on her desk!

Isn't it the cutest thing? as I mentioned before add age appropriate candy, cookies or even why not, erasers or colorful paper clip or rubber bands!  This is only to inspire you, your imagination is the limit.

I hope I have inspired you with this easy craft and consider it as a little sweet gesture from your child to the one person he/she is going to be seeing a lot for the next few months keeping their young minds sharp!
DIY Pencil Gumball Machine Teacher's Gift, give this cute "gumball machine" as a nice to meet you gift to your child's teacher. It will look great on her desk with candies, cookies, paper clips or just by itself!

Besitos,
Lizy

Sharing some "gumball" fun at these Fabulous Parties:
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Another Gumball Machine you might enjoy:
Kiss Me DIY Gumball Machine

Friday, March 15, 2013

Spring Clay Pots with a Surprise (Dirt Cake)

Rapidito en Viernes=Quicky Fridays

Hola amigos! Hope you all had a great, healthy and productive week! Today I'm bringing you a little treat perfect for Spring, Easter, Birthday party..the sky is the limit when you are using your imagination.
It all started with a trip to the dollar store where I purchased everything I needed for this dessert. 1 bag of candy turned into 2, 3 ...well they kept multiplying,...and believe me when I tell you guys, I just went in for a big bottle of Iced Tea...oh well...since I can't bake or use fondant just create pretty things with icing...I figured, why not use what is already there to treat my guys with something festive for spring.
Here is how you make the Spring Clay Pots with a Surprise:


1 box of chocolate cupcake mix
4 little containers of chocolate pudding ($1 for 4 at the dollar store)
1 envelope of unflavored gelatin
1 cup of boiling water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsps vanilla butter food flavoring
transparent tumbler cups
non toxic brown paint

 Assorted Candies...don't forget to include gummy worms

First bake your cupcakes according to instructions. Even though I used cupcake  mix I baked mine in a 9 inch baking pan. 
While your cake is baking. Prepare the tumblers by painting the outside of them in brown paint. Let them dry.
See little helper...he was working hard on hid clay pot!

Some of them I only painted half (for the surprise)...there is a method to my madness folks!

Prepare your unflavored gelatin. By adding the boiling water to a container with the gelatin and sugar. The gelatin should dissolve in 5 minutes. Add the vanilla butter flavoring. 
Distribute evenly in 4 tumblers. Put a couple of gummy worms inside. Place in the refrigerator to chill and set.

Once the gelatin mix has set, take some pudding and add it to each tumbler, as much or little as you want, I used 1 full pudding cup per tumbler, but that's just me.
Take a slice of your chocolate cake, crumble it and fill up the tumblers to the top with it!
Listo, it's time to use your imagination to decorate your clay pots!


Worms coming out of wet dirt (the wet effect is chocolate syrup)

A bunny and it's carrots in a field of greens...happy as he could be!

A little nest with twigs dusted on early snow...so sweet!

And a bouquet of flowers ready to be picked from your personal clay pot..

and oh, it you were wondering about the surprise...here

My little one was thrilled to find "critters" coming in and out, and swimming underneath all that dirt in his clay pot, oh and they refrigerate well too!

Hope you like what I've brought you tonight. May all of you have a wonderful and blessed weekend.
Remember everything tastes better, with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,
Lizy

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Amor Es=One Stop Gift Shop


Hola Amigos, Valentine's is only a month away...oh my!!! Time to get our shopping and decorations going for  the festive occasion. Today's post is your one stop gift central  for a Valentine's on a budget From the decor in your home to that special something for your partner in crime, with this guide everybody is sure to find something to bring smiles, hugs and kisses and still keep a full wallet! Click on any highlighted link on each category for a detail on how to create these gifts!

Gifts for Her: For the woman in your life...what else Jewelry of course! Even better if its in the colors of Love! A necklace and bracelet set are sure to win her over! and if these tokens of love are not her taste, she can always turn them into fun looking office supplies!


Gifts for the Kids: For your kids from you, of from your kids to their friends, here you will find an endless world of possibilities. To mention a few, Heart Shaped Melted Crayons to say You Color My World! Flowers in a Crazy Lady Bug hand painted vase, A Treasure Hunt Apple for the Apple of your life and Scrabble Tiles Love Barrettes!



For the House: What a lovely way of welcoming Cupid into our homes than with candy and these angelical faces. Everybody loves candy and when they are displayed in these cute little jars she/he will love you even more!


And remember a key to a man's heart is through food so make your kitchen festive while you cook him that delicious dinner with this amazing "Love Hurts Wreath

For Him: The best Present you could possible give to the man in your life! A One Time Pass to His Hearts Desire! Let him use this clever "Out of Jail Free Card" for whatever he wants...a massage, a special dinner request, 2 boring hours of his favorite sporting event or OOOPS Honey...I forgot today was Valentine's Day! Make it portable and use one Personalize It Mug also available at your Dollar Tree, cute huh?


There you go friends, no excuse to share gifts of love this February 14th all from your friendly dollar store!

Also just to remind you that if for any reason you can't give the Gift of Life this Valentine's you could kindly donate funds to the Red Cross. In their own words:  "A gift of any size supports the lifesaving mission of the American Red Cross whether it's responding to a disaster, collecting lifesaving blood, teaching skills that can save a life, or assisting our military members and their families".

Besitos,
Lizy


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Te acuerdas?=Do You Remember When?


Hola Amigos I'm excited today to take a trip down memory lane with music and cartoons and show you my new Valentine's kitchen wreath.

I got my inspiration from  a classic song by Nazareth 'Love Hurts" and those funny cartoons and old movies when the husband sometimes used to come home a little tipsy and his wife was waiting to hear an explanation rollers on her head and rolling pin or frying pan at hand. Poor guy...but as the song goes...Love Hurts!
This wreath was meant to go in my kitchen and it started with your regular grapevine wreath we all have and these hearts from Target circa Christmas Clearance Sale 2011. But it was too sweet for me, it needed a bit more edge and why not a bit more, rock'n roll!

Here come the scrubbing brillo pads which by the way, now come in  beautiful colors almost too pretty to use for their intended purpose. I found them at my local Dollar Tree store.

So far so good, I embellished the scrubs with little heart picks, right in the middle so now they look like pretty flowers.

Now to the painful part of the equation. For almost a year I've been saving this little frying pan. I thought it was adorable and perfect for this projec. the only thing was that it was so heavy than  just to attach it it took a little bit of engineering for it not to fall and then causing "real pain" on somebody's foot to say the least. Ouch!

The design is tied together by this little banner made out of cutouts from paint chips leftover from a previous project. And of course it reads...Love Hurts!

What do you think? Isn't it lovely? It sure brings a smile to my face  every time I catch a glimpse of it...that and I can't stop singing the song ( I'm sure you are stuck with it too)

As I said, this is a kitchen wreath...but I don't see why you couldn't  use it as a "lovely outdoor reminder"  of what could happen if certain person decides to come home after approved hours, lol!


Hope you liked today's craft...as usual you guys know I don't take Valentine's too serious..it's all about having fun!


Besitos,
Lizy

Stirring the Pot of Love at these Fabulous Parties:


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Amor Es=We "Heart" our Kids


Hola Amigos! Hope you had a Great Thursday with now only 5 weeks left to celebrate Cupid's birthday in any way we choose! Dinner, gifts, cards, candy or like we do here on Just Dip It In Chocolate, by giving the gift of life at the Red Cross!
Today I've been  attempting to make kids crafts for Valentine's. I say attempting because I haven't even come close to make one of these in more than 12 years!!! Yup, my oldest son decided that at 8,  it wasn't cool to give V'day gifts anymore (although he enjoys receiving them till today), but because life is full of surprises, I have to start all over again with my little 4yo this year!!!! His definition of Valentine's Day:" Mamma, is Valentines the  the day when grandma gives me chocolates"???...Yes sweetie! "Cool" he says...


So here are my little projects, now, don't get excited my friends, I'm not discovering hot water here or coming up with some cool creative idea. Basically I'm taking what's been done all over blogland and giving it my own twist. After all  -a- I have to jump into the kiddie craft bandwagon after a long time of being "retired", -b- I just started blogging 2 months ago (yeayyy) and -c-, well you all know I do nothing for that day in particular. so guys bear with me please, lol


Crayons Hearts: Dollar Tree store crayons ($1), chop them up and place the little pieces in silicone molds (mine from Michael's at 50%off). Put them in the oven for 15-30 minutes at 230 degrees and you are done. I printed a map of the Universe, North America, The World...you get where I'm going..rolled it up, tied it with twine and place the Heart with a place card with the saying..."YOU COLOR MY WORLD"







Crazy Ladybug: Dollar Tree to the rescue again. They have this adorable ladybugs that are magnetic and go like crazy around a can...all we did was painting the can stick some flowers in ..done! My little assistant was with me until he saw the crazy ladybug and the rest was history! I was left to paint the rest of the can by myself and I'm no Picasso guys...mine came out looking more like a Miro! lol




Keeping it Real Note: I'm not sure if it's because the can was painted and then coated with glitter paint, but the crazy ladybug does not run as fast as it does on flat surfaces. It stays on due to the magnet, but it has a hard time rolling. Just to let you guys know...experiment first before painting.

Let Your Hair do the Talking: How about cute scrabble tiles hot glued to plain old headbands and barrettes also from the Dollar Tree..(geez I have to stay away from that store, lol) Easy Fast and Mamma is wearing them!






Message in the Bottle: My little one can't read but if yours do, that's even better you can make a list of things to find in the bottle and have fun!..Just fill up a bottle with little things like confetti, paper  punches and tiny toys and make your little one go for a treasure hunt! Tag it with ARRRGGG Treasure YOU or You Are The Apple Of My Life.  I found some inspirationon how to make the apple looking one on Pinterest.

 


An that's it folks! Hope you forgive me if this post bored you to tears, but we had fun creating these little nicknaks and would be giving them out to brother, cousins, aunties and grandmas this year.
Don't forget in words of the American Red Cross " The Need is Constant, The gratification is Instant, Give Blood!


Besitos,
Lizy